“My Biography” By Israel J. Carbuckle, SUS DD Consumer.

Editors Note: This piece was written by Israel Carbuckle, a SUS consumer who participates in the Hicks Day Habilitation program. This is his original content and has not been edited by SUS staff.

My name is Israel J. Carbuckle and I am 26 years old. I was born on October 3, 1984 in Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. When I was 2 years old I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy even though it has been diagnosed that my disability is not developmental. I am the last of 6 children from a mom who couldn’t love her children more and a father who couldn’t love his children less. I don’t know, it seems like somewhere in 64 years being a father became boring and drugs became more fun. My mother and I were very close but like they say God gives and takes away. My mom passed away in the summer of 2001 when I was 16 years old. Since I was a child I was very athletic, I love being active, but when you lose someone close to you life seems to not be the same for you anymore, and that’s sort of the case with me.

All of my brothers are older than me, but I am the only one of my mother’s kids to be serious about school. My 2^nd to oldest brother who were born in the same month as me turned to the gang life a few years after my mother died. My mom was like the glue that held all of us together, and when she died it seemed like everything around me was falling apart and I couldn’t stop it. When you’re the youngest you’re the last to know everything, but when my mom passed away I was the 3^rd to know. On June 21^st 2005 I graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School after moving to Brooklyn in June of 2004 to start my life over again.

Since my mother passed away I developed a love for writing. I wrote my 1^st poem at 17 years old and it got published in Morris High School’s Senior School Newspaper in the summer of 2002. After a while writing poems seemed to be small beans to me so I decided to write books. When you’re a writer you need inspiration, something to write about. I basically wrote about what I saw since I’m not much of an emotional person. I started a series of book called the Models Inc series molded after one of my favorite Game Shows Deal Or No Deal. I began writing my 1^st book in the fall of 2008 and I am the midst of writing my 3^rd book. Most of my books are 40 pages long (4 chapters, 10 pages each), but my 3^rd book is going to be a little longer. My 3^rd book is going to be called “More Than Just A Model” about this briefcase model (Notice a pattern) who goes to this wrestling camp in hopes of becoming a wrestler. I am currently in the middle of composing ideas for the book. I have been accepted for the Spring 2011 semester at New York City College Of Technology and hopefully that will help me in my future hopes of becoming an accountant, and a writer. I am receiving a lot of help from my Supervisor and the staff at SUS’s Hicks Day Habilitation (Work Without Walls Program).